Tag Archives: folklife

Yesterday, I was getting ready to head out and explore my world. First, I had to buy a new headset for my iPhone. I fell in walking home a few weeks ago and smashed my other headset. Thanks to the new iPhone cover my sister bought me, the iPhone survived the fall, but the headset did not. Could have been worse, definitely. Then I was going to head out to a different coffee shop, one I have not been to in a while, to try to write a bit. I wanted to finish up an essay for a contest and the early deadline is Monday.

I was walking out the door when my cell phone rings. My brother called me and put my niece on the phone. She informed me that after lunch, they were coming to Auntie Colleen’s house. Oh really? I’m glad she called me before I was too involved in my own plans. Obviously, this required me to rethink my entire day and reschedule everything, which I was more than happy to do. When the five-year old requests an audience, you don’t ask questions, you simply adjust. It’s kind of like getting a summons from the Queen. I talked to my brother for a few minutes and decided I had enough time to go get my new ear-pods and get back home before they arrived.

When they showed up, it was clear that they had no plans. I saw an open-air street flea market of some kind in at Court House near Clarendon and suggested that. There is also a pretty large park nearby and I offered that up as well. We ended up going to Busboys & Poets to get fries to feed the child and then trekked into the city, and by trekked, I mean we drove, found parking and walked to the museums in DC.

I love that I can do this. Just six months ago, walking all over the Mall and wandering in museum after museum would have been at best an extremely painful and difficult venture bordering on impossible. Now I can walk around for hours, which we did, with no struggle. I almost want to cry from sheer joy every time I venture out on one of these excursions.

My brother and I had a short conversation about this. He said that he and his wife used to struggle to find excursions that they could do with me that I would be able to do. Usually, dinner out, movies, sitting at home and talking, etc were safe activities. Going to fairs, festivals, The Mall, etc were out of the question. Now he says they don’t even think about it. They just call me and make plans. I love hearing this.

But I digress…

My niece always loves going to see the dinosaurs, she cannot get enough of them, actually. We went to the Natural History Museum. Then there was bird chasing and kite watching on The Mall and then the American Indian Museum, which is really cool. I had never been there before. Unfortunately, we arrived there about 30 minutes before it closed, so we did not get to see much of it, so we will definitely be heading back there.

Then we went to “Old McDonald’s” for chicken nuggets. I’m horrified that my brother feeds her MCD nuggets, but it’s something she can eat and she loves them. She has food allergies, so their choices when eating out are limited. Plus, she is fussy, as most kids her age are. So, I keep my opinions on MCD to myself and just let it go. She does not have a weight problem, which is good. She’s always been very thin, even as a baby. She eats all the time too, and she has no problem asking for food when she’s hungry. In fact, she was so hungry by the time we got to MCD that she was literally singing a chicken nugget song she made up.

That little girl is something else. I am just so glad that I can go out on these adventures with her when she leaves the confines of the DC exurbs and ventures into the city with her dad. Maybe this summer we will make it down to the American Folklife Festival with her.